• Ahmet Gürer, Mehmet Ozdoğan, Ali Kağan Gökakin, Ismail Gömceli, Ozlem Gülbahar, Ata Türker Arikök, Hakan Kulaçoğlu, and Raci Aydin.
• Department of General Surgery, Atatürk Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
• Ulus Travma Acil Cer. 2009 Jan 1; 15 (1): 1-6.

BackgroundThe second hit in trauma leads to an exaggerated inflammatory response and multiple organ failure. Infection following burn injury is a useful model for two-hit trauma studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) treatment as an antioxidant in a two-hit trauma model.Methods30% scalding burn injury was performed in 45 rats and cecal ligation-puncture (CLP) was performed 72 hours later. Groups were allocated as follows: Group I: No treatment was performed; Group II: Rats were treated with 150 mg/kg/day i.p. NAC for 72 h following CLP; Group III: Rats were treated with 150 mg/kg/day i.p. NAC for 6 days following thermal injury. Tissue samples were collected to study the tissue malonyldialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) levels, and for histopathological examination on day 7.ResultsNo difference in mortality between groups was detected. Tissue MDA levels significantly decreased in the liver (p=0.01, p=0.02) and ileum (p=0.01, p=0.02) in the treatment groups. Lung tissue GSH levels were found to be significantly increased in Group II (p=0.02). Lung injury scores were decreased in Group II (p=0.005) compared to the control group.ConclusionNAC attenuated tissue oxidative stress level and remote organ injury in two-hit trauma. Further experimental and clinical studies on this subject are necessary.

27 keywords...

hide…